WICHITA, Kan. – Avila men's soccer headed west to Wichita for its second-to-last game of the 2023 regular season, where the Eagles (3-13-1, 2-9-1 KCAC) were defeated by Friends (7-5-5, 6-2-4 KCAC) by a final count of 2-0 on Wednesday afternoon.

The game was originally supposed to be played outside later on Wednesday night, but due to severe rain across the state Wednesday the teams were able to move the game indoors to nearby Stryker Sports Complex and kick off earlier in the afternoon.

The Falcons are one of the better teams in the KCAC this season and lived up to that billing Wednesday, but it took some time for them to finally pull away. Avila remained right in the mix throughout the opening 45 minutes, thanks in large part to four first-half saves from Johnathan Fager, and kept the pesky Falcons scoreless headed into halftime.

But early the second half, the home team finally found its breakthrough. Alvaro Quezada broke the deadlock less than two minutes in and then scored again four minutes later to double Friends' lead, and Avila had no response. AJ Rankin was the only Eagle to get shots on goal against Just Guiting, and Friends walked away with a 2-0 win to improve its playoff positioning. Fager finished with seven saves for Avila.

The Eagles will now conclude the 2023 regular season this Saturday evening in North Newton, Kansas against Bethel. The Eagle women will kick off the doubleheader at 5 PM with the men to follow at 7:30; as always, you can watch all the action on the KCAC Network.